Two new developments in the Vespa GT/GTS exhaust gasket recall story:
- VespaUSA CEO Paolo Timoni vaguely addressed the exhaust problem in a story naming him “Powersports Business’ 2007 Executive of the Year”: “‘We have made some really good improvements in parts availability and our capability to serve dealers,’ he said, ‘although we cannot claim the job has been completed. We’re still working on, for example, the manifold casting.'” While not quite public, (the magazine is targeted at dealers), and not very specific, this was the closest we’ve seen PiaggioUSA come to addressing the problem publicly. (The rest of the story is enlightening, too.)
- An Australian reader reports that Australian importer Peter Stevens Motorcycles has sent letters to GT/GTS owners advising them to visit their dealer for a free 35-minute service to replace the “exhaust leader pipe.”
That he was named PSB Exec of the year really damages the magazine’s credibility
I find this article interesting as a window into Piaggio’s mentality. Clearly, they have thought their ideas out, but there seems to be an extreme obsession with statistics at the expense of any kind of qualitative understanding of the American market. Like all of their predecessors they seem to think Americans will come running to scooters because of high gas prices and ecologiccal concerns, and that one day American cities will suddenly be flooded European style with scooters. This Holy Grail has been the graveyard of many scooter manufacturers and distributors (including the Japanese in the 80s). I’ve seen Cushman ads from 1937 with guys in fedora hats and suits touting “100 miles to the galleon.” The reality is that the 8000 or so scooters Piaggio are selling a year are about the same as in 1955, when they also believed that millions of Americans would be riding scooters in 1969. Yet their tunnel vision seems to blind them to the fact that Americans take to something best when it becomes a hobby or form of recreation. This is what happened with bicycling, and then bicycle commuting came later. They have squandered their main asset, the tremendous passion for the Vespa and the huge scooter community. Their wisest long-term choice would be to invest in organized scootering and start communicating with the scooter community.
That’s a fantastic assessment by Mr. Gerber. Gas mileage is a convenient rationalization for owning a scooter, but usually not the real reason for purchasing one.
Gerber is an assessing machine, with a hundred times my assessing power, I wish he’d post here more often.